Nature in the Classical World Nature in the Classical World

In this podcast, co-hosts Will Weber and Sean Kirkpatrick continue their discussion on how the Ancients viewed the Relationship between the Gods and the Natural World by examining Lucretius' The Nature of Things. Many Ancient Poets, such as Hesiod and Homer, believed that Zeus and the Greek Gods had a purposeful hand in the creation, existence and destruction of the Natural World. Lucretius, in his epic poem The Nature of Things, derives a different explanation for how the Gods and the World interact. In this episode, Co-Hosts Will and Sean dive deeper into a particular passage that encompasses Lucretius' unique and possibly revolutionary view of the Universe, and offer their own compelling interpretation.

This podcast discusses the relationship between gods and plagues in the classical world.

This podcast reviews how labor in the classical world relates to our modern interpretation of hard work.

Were people of the ancient world less controlling and more respectful of nature than people of today?

In this week’s chapter of “Nature in the Classical World”, Holy Cross students Caroline and Allison discuss the conflicting ways in which the Ancient Greeks and Romans think about and act upon nature, a hypocrisy, we discover, that still characterizes our interactions with nature today.

The Ancient Greeks had a very intimate connection with the environment around them and it therefore help a great significance to them. They portrayed this significance in their literature as they created characters out of natural elements that were imbued with a divinity. In this podcast two Ancient Greek works (Homer's Iliad and Hesiod's Theogony) will be discussed in this light.